[Annotator's Note: Interview begins with the interviewer speaking with Gabriel Kinney about his nephew being in jump training at Fort Benning, Georgia.] Gabriel Kinney was born in February 1921 on Stouts Mountain, Alabama. His father was an immigrant from Ireland and his mother was an immigrant from Scotland. They met in Stouts Mountain and married there. They were very poor during his childhood and their world was much different than things are today. Kinney's parents had 12 children. Nine of them served during World War 2. Kinney lost his father on 10 January 1942. Six of the Kinney boys and three of the girls went in the service. Kinney was working for US Steel in Birmingham the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. Kinney had no idea where Pearl Harbor was. Initially, learning of the attack did not mean much to him. Kinney entered the service in November 1942. Early in 1942 he and three of his buddies from the mines tried to get into the US Army Air Forces to become aviation cadets. There was a long waiting list. The three ended up in the infantry instead and all went their separate ways. Kinney was inducted at Fort McClellan then sent to Camp Wheeler, Georgia for basic training. Kinney took his training under the leadership of a young lieutenant, Lieutenant McLogan, who was just out of college ROTC. During basic training Kinney fired every weapon used by the infantry including the Browning Automatic Rifle. He ended up carrying the BAR throughout the rest of the war. Upon completion of his basic training the lieutenant promoted him to PFC and shipped him out to Camp Shenango, Pennsylvania where he was equipped for overseas duty. From there he was sent to San Francisco where he boarded a ship for New Caledonia. From New Caledonia he went to Guadalcanal.

The trip overseas was very interesting for Gabriel Kinney. They traveled aboard an old Norwegian freighter with no escort. They zig zagged [Annotator's Note: zig zagging is a naval tactic meant to make it difficult for enemy submarines to acquire an accurate torpedo shot on the vessel] the whole way. Accommodations were not very good. They were only served two meals a day. Kinney knew he was going to combat but he did not know where. When he got to Guadalcanal all of the tough fighting had been completed. He took part in the mop up. After they completed their part of the mop up they began training for the invasion of Vella Lavella. At the time Kinney was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. Just before they shipped out for the invasion of Vella Lavella their lieutenant was promoted and transferred to the 26th Infantry Regiment. The lieutenant who took his place was the same one who had taken Kinney through basic training, Lieutenant McLogan. McLogan was Kinney's platoon leader for the invasion of Vella Lavella. The operations on Vella Lavella was more than a mop up. The Japanese troops ashore were from all different branches. They were survivors of ships that had been sunk by the US Navy and had made it ashore there. After Vella Lavella was secured Kinney and another soldier were approached by Colonel McGee [Annotator's Note: Colonel A. George McGee] who told them he was looking for combat veterans to go to another theater of operations and fight one mission. After completing that mission they would be shipped back to the United States and sent to the post of their choosing. Colonel McGee had a document the men had to sign which five men from Kinney's unit did, including Lieutenant McLogan, because it was such a tempting offer. Unfortunately, they did not keep up their end of it. They went back to Guadalcanal then continued on to New Caledonia. There, they were put into a group of about 1,000 combat veterans from the Pacific. Then a ship arrived at New Caledonia carrying about 2,000 men from the United States and the Caribbean. That was the group Kinney joined. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion and shipped out to a camp in India.

When Gabriel Kinney and the other volunteers for the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) arrived in India they were split up into six combat teams. Red and White were 1st Battalion, Blue and Green were 2nd Battalion, which Kinney was in, and Khaki and Orange were 3rd Battalion. After unloading off the trucks they were called out by name and assigned to tents. Kinney as assigned to 1st Platoon, Blue Combat Team. When Kinney entered the 1st Platoon tent he discovered that he was the only combat veteran in the platoon. That did not go over well at all. In the platoon were a lieutenant, a top sergeant, four buck sergeants, and four corporals. They were all from the United States so all of the riflemen in the platoon went to Kinney for advice. Because of that there was some friction between the combat veterans and those without combat experience. Kinney did everything he could with the men in his platoon. The training they did in India mostly focused on physical fitness. Once they got into combat Kinney helped the new men as much as he could. Kinney got another BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] when he got to India. The BAR was a fine weapon as long as it was kept clean.

Gabriel Kinney's unit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), also known as Merrills's Marauders] moved by train from their training area to Ledo, India. At the time the Ledo Road was still about 100 miles out of Ledo in Burma. Their first mission was to go down the Ledo Road to a certain point then take to the jungles to get behind the Japanese. Their objective was the village of Walabum. During the trip they ran into numerous Japanese outposts and lost quite a few people. When the 3rd Platoon ran into a Japanese patrol for the first time the lieutenant split the platoon up. Kinney was to take the left flank, the sergeant was to take the right flank, and the lieutenant remained with the rest of the platoon. Kinney led his five men off to the left and set up. Three Japanese soldiers approached them and were quickly killed. Hearing the gunfire, the platoon sergeant thought Kinney's group was Japanese and opened fire on them. After the engagement ended Kinney had a serious talk with his platoon. He pulled his men back and returned to the platoon from the rear. Kinney did not lose any men during that action. It was good training for the 1st Platoon. Where Kinney's group had initially trained in India they trained to conduct water crossings and the men learned to keep their weapons dry. Combat in Burma was different than what Kinney had experienced before. On Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella they were on the offense and were hunting the Japanese. In Burma, their job was to be on defense all the way to a certain point, launch an attack, then go back on defense. That was their mission. Their first mission was to hit Walabum and cut the road in order to relieve the British. The mission was successful. During their first mission they left base with three days rations. Kinney also knew to carry extra ammunition. By the time they left Walabum they were almost out of ammunition. Kinney had about a half a clip left [Annotator's Note: about ten rounds]. After they pulled back about 20 miles into the jungle, arrangements were made for ammunition and supplies to be dropped to them. When they pulled back from Walabum they got reorganized, resupplied and got their wounded out. To get out the wounded all they had to do was find a small area where an L5 aircraft [Annotator's Note: Stinson L5 Sentinel] could land. The L5 could carry out three wounded. When they first went out on the mission they were told that anyone who was wounded and could not keep up would be left. That never happened. They buried their dead but they did not leave any wounded. All of their supplies came in by air. They did not get any replacements. For heavy firepower they carried an air cooled .50 caliber machine gun. The only other automatic weapons were a BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] and a Tommy Gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] in each platoon.

Gabriel Kinney occasionally encountered Burmese civilians. For the most part the natives did not care who they were. They never used the natives to help carry supplies. They did have some Gurkhas who acted as scouts but they did not carry supplies. The supplies were all carried by the soldiers, on horses or on mules. They lost a lot of mules during their operations. Their mission to Walabum was to set up a road block, destroy the Japanese supply depot and destroy anything else they came across. Once the Japanese realized where Kinney's outfit [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), also known as GALAHAD Force or Merrill's Marauders] was they tried 16 times to break through their lines in frontal banzai attacks. Some of the Americans were killed and many others were wounded. The Japanese had some air and artillery support but they did not use it during the engagement at Walabum. It was in a different location where the Japanese were fighting Indian commonwealth soldiers. The weather in Burma was very hot. Even so, everything stayed wet. The leeches were so bad that the mule skinners had to pick them off the mules and the men constantly had to pick them off of themselves. The leeches bothered them more than the Japanese did. Tropical disease was rampant. They suffered from scrub typhus. They lost as many men from scrub typhus as they did from the Japanese. After their first mission was completed they went deeper into the jungle. They moved back and got a supply drop then got a couple days rest. Then they moved off to cut off the road in another location. They ended up cutting the road in three different places.

Gabriel Kinney and the 2nd Battalion [Annotator's Note: 2nd Battalion, Blue Combat Team, 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)] were cut off at Nhpum Ga. They had cut the road at the third location and had lost quite a few people. As they pulled back, Kinney's platoon was tasked with being the rear guard. They got all their wounded out then tried to get to an airfield where they were told they would receive a supply drop. On the way they learned that the Japanese were trying to cut them off in two directions. When they pulled out and headed to Nhpum Ga where they were to set up a block the Japanese were already in the area and were shelling it. The men of 2nd Battalion were able to get to their objective and set up defensive positions. All along the way they were under Japanese artillery fire. They did not have any artillery to fight back with. The Japanese would fire 25 rounds early in the morning then would try to attack. Around noon they fired 25 more rounds then tried to attack again. This went on every day for the 13 days they were there. Eight to ten days into the battle, the 3rd Battalion managed to get in close. They had an artillery piece dropped to them which they used to knock out the Japanese artillery. After knocking out the enemy artillery, the 3rd Battalion broke through on the northern side of the position. When Kinney witnessed a banzai attack he always wondered if he would have enough ammunition. Each clip held 20 rounds and he always carried ten clips with him. During many of those fights he had to reload the clips. The M1 rifles carried by the riflemen were good rifles. The only time Kinney just cut loose with the BAR was if the Japanese were right on top of them. Kinney never felt any hatred for the Japanese. The first Japanese Kinney ever saw was on Guadalcanal. He was out on a patrol and turned a corner on a trail and found himself face to face with a young Japanese soldier. The enemy soldier's rifle was on his shoulder. Kinney's BAR [Annotator's Note: Browning Automatic Rifle] was at hip level and ready to fire. The Japanese soldier grinned at Kinney and went fire his rifle. To this day Kinney wonders if the man was going to drop the rifle or if he would have tried to shoot him. Kinney killed him. He never took any chances. Kinney was raised in the woods and was able to spot the Japanese positions by the upturned branches and limbs they used to conceal the position. Kinney heard stories about the Japanese being ruthless and that made them act ruthless too.

[Annotator's Note: Gabriel Kinney served in the Army as a BAR man and fought with the 25th Infantry Division on Guadalcanal and Vella Lavella then joined the 2nd Battalion, Blue Combat Team, 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) and saw action in Burma.] After the battle of Nhpum Ga they moved back to the little airstrip. They evacuated all of their wounded and were even able to get their dead out as well. Up to that point the 2nd Battalion alone had suffered over 450 casualties. The battalion was made up of two 600 man teams but 400 was about half of the fighting force. When they crossed the mountains to go into Myitkyinā there was less than 300 men left in all three battalions combined. After they pulled back from Nhpum Ga, a unit of Chinese troops was flown in which was used to engage a Japanese position so the American troops could get past it during the advance toward Myitkyinā. When they reached the Myitkyinā airport there were only the few Marauders that were left. There were no indigenous forces with them. To get to Myitkyinā they had to cross a mountain range that no one thought was possible. The journey put them to the test. Every one of them had dysentery. Kinney carried one man for 25 miles. Before they stared the march they were resupplied. When they got to Myitkyinā, Kinney dug in with what was left of his platoon. Chinese forces were moving in quickly. By the time the area was secured there were very few Marauders left. They got orders to march to a location on the other side of the Irrawaddy River. On the way, they ran into a Japanese position that had a heavy machine gun. When Kinney told his guys to dig in, many of them just hit the dirt and fell asleep. They were spent. An engineer battalion was finally brought in to relieve them. When the engineers arrived it was discovered that none of them had been trained to fire a weapon. When the day came for them to leave the group headed to the airfield and flew out to a hospital somewhere. Kinney, however was asked by his lieutenant to stay with the engineers for one night to show them how to use their weapons. Kinney agreed. That night he lost six of the men he was trying to help.

The following day [Annotator's Note: the day after they left Myitkyinā], Gabriel Kinney and the other remaining Marauders who could walk were sent to a makeshift hospital in Ledo. Kinney was suffering from many things ranging from jungle rot to dysentery and malnutrition. When they were released from the hospital there were only about 18 of them still on their feet. No one knew what to do with them so they were sent back to Myitkyinā where Kinney spent another 30 days in an outpost on a river bank. There is no record of Kinney going back to Myitkyinā or the 30 days he spent there. Kinney finally left Myitkyinā to go home around 10 November 1944. Kinney had three wounds. He does not know of a Marauder who was not wounded multiple times. After leaving Myitkyinā they were put under Stilwell [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell]. The wound in Kinney's back was the worst. Some of the wounds were from shrapnel but one of them was from a .25 caliber bullet that hit his helmet and his helmet cut him. In Burma the Japanese tried to infiltrate the Marauders positions a few times. The enemy soldiers would move into a position and would make noise in an attempt to get the Americans to fire on them which would give away their position. The Americans learned early on to throw a hand grenade instead of shoot.

On 10 November [Annotator's Note: 10 November 1944], Gabriel Kinney was sent back to the airport [Annotator's Note: at Myitkyinā, Burma] where he was given papers to go home. He was flown out to Ledo on a plane with a Chinese crew. After several stops he landed in Miami where he got a clean uniform, was put up in a hotel, and was able to take his first shower in some time. The calorie count in the K Rations they had was very low so they all lost weight. When they were at Nhpum Ga they did not get a food drop during the first ten days. They were only getting ammunition. They went five days without a water drop. On Easter Sunday morning the Marauders [Annotator's Note: Merril's Marauders was the nickname given to members of the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)] were dropped fried chicken. After returning to the United States Kinney did not get to go to the post of his choice. Over the course of the following year he spent time at nine different camps. Since he was a worn out soldier nobody wanted him. He was sent from Miami to Fort McPherson, Georgia. From there he was sent to bases in Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and South Carolina. Kinney finally made it back to Birmingham, Alabama where he was mustered out. Kinney had been born and raised in a coal mining town about 50 miles from Birmingham called Hanceville. Kinney was in Birmingham when he learned that the Japanese had surrendered and that the war was over. The first thing Kinney wanted to do was get out. He was discharged in November 1945. He had gotten married in September and was still in the service at that time. In Miami, Kinney was promoted to corporal and that is what he was discharged as. After leaving the service Kinney took advantage of his GI Bill benefits and got his degree in engineering. He then went back to work for US Steel and stayed there for 41 years. Kinney still has nightmares. He feels that his wife is the one who had to suffer because of them. Kinney had trouble finding housing after the war. No one in the Birmingham area would rent to soldiers. They were eventually able to find home and raised a family.

When Gabriel Kinney first went overseas to join the 25th Infantry Division he was assigned to 1st Platoon, Company F, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry Regiment. His most memorable experience from his time on Guadalcanal was the encounter he had with the young Japanese soldier on the jungle trail [Annotator's Note: see clip titled Should I Shoot]. Vella Lavella was not a hard fight. After landing from LCIs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft, Infantry] they hit a little opposition but did not have any trouble getting to the jungle. As they reached the jungle line, a squadron of Japanese bombers flew over and attacked them. Fortunately, they only lost one man. Kinney's most memorable experience from Burma was something that happened at Nhpum Ga. One day the lieutenant came down the line and told the men to pack their belongings and after dark they were to move out on their own. A few hours later the lieutenant returned and told them to unpack that they would be staying. To this day there is some controversy about how the Marauders were used. Kinney believes that they were sent in to cut the Ledo Road one time. He believes that they did such a good job that Wingate [Annotator's Note: British Army Major General Orde C. Wingate] made the decision to use them to do the same thing again. They were under Wingate at that time and not under Stilwell [Annotator's Note: Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell]. They did a good job everywhere except when they were surrounded by the Japanese at Nhpum Ga. The trip to Myitkyinā was asking too much of them. Kinney does not feel that the war changed him. He married and raised six children. He and his wife have had a good life. The war does not mean anything to Kinney today. He wishes he could forget it but that is impossible. The Veterans Day prior to this interview, Kinney received a card from a high school student in China thanking him for what he did during the war. He had fought in Burma where they were fighting to help the Chinese. World War 2 was a war that had to be fought. After leaving the service it was hard for Kinney to assimilate back into civilian society. It took about 14 months for him to realize that he had to change. Kinney feels that it is important that there be institutions like The National WWII Museum and for the war to be taught to future generations.